with these things, take the small one first, debt ceiling last, i think it's a rational, reasonable thing to do. >> now, for some, wolf, maybe even those in the republican house leadership, like him talking about what is rational and reasonable, that may be a bit jarring but the house republicans are coming out of their three-day retreat saying they have a better chance of reaching their goal of broad spending cuts. and that means not making the demand in the next few weeks, which is exactly what it would mean because, according to most economists, we will hit that debt ceiling mid-february. >> so here's the question, bottom line, is is this a sure thing? will congress actually vote to raise the debt limit next week? >> well, there is a catch. the house gop, the leadership at least says what they are going to try to pass next week would raise the debt ceiling for three months but with a condition. and that would be that the house and senate pass budgets. it may seem simple but house republicans like to point out that they haven't passed a budget in years. we already saw a carefully